Principles of Haemodynamic Coupling for fmri Paul M. Matthews Head, Global Imaging Unit, GlaxoSmithKline and Professor of Clinical Neurosciences, Imperial College paul.m.matthews@gsk.com
Regulation of cerebral blood flow Mosso (1881): pulsation of brain increases with cognitive activity Broca (1879): increases in brain temperature with cerebral activity Hill (1896): no relationship between brain blood flow and activity Fulton (1928): increase in bruit from occipital AVM with visual attention Kety (1960): autoradiographic methods for regional blood flow quantitation Lassen (1963): in vivo tomographic assessment of regional blood flow
Regulation of cerebral blood flow Mosso (1881): pulsation of brain increases with cognitive activity Broca (1879): increases in brain temperature with cerebral activity Roy and Sherrington (1890): evidence for regulation of blood flow by local brain metabolism Hill (1896): no relationship between brain blood flow and activity Fulton (1928): increase in bruit from occipital AVM with visual attention Kety (1960): autoradiographic methods for regional blood flow quantitation Lassen (1963): in vivo tomographic assessment of regional blood flow
Cerebral blood flow follows systemic arterial pressure changes in the anesthetised dog
Cerebral blood flow changes indepedently of arterial blood pressure with local infusion of acid or supernatent of brain extract Brain volume measure Infusion of supernatant of brain extract Arterial blood pressure
Implications for brain function and in the clinic
A refinement to the concept: reduction in oxygen extraction fraction with brain activity
A century on (1992): the BOLD hypothesis Neurovascular coupling and Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent functional imaging contrast
The decrease in deoxyhemoglobin with brain activation is associated with local increase in gradient echo MRI signal
Stimulation of visual cortex shows frequency-dependent effects consistent with aggregate neuronal response and PET measures of local CBF
Are local CBF driven by local acidic metabolite release under conditions of normal physiology? Modelling of pericapillary PO 2 MA Mintun et al. PNAS 98 (2001) 6859
Moderate hypoxia does not increase the hyperaemic response to neuronal activation
Introducing the astrocyte as an intermediate in neurovascular coupling Magistretti and Pellerin, Phil. Trans.R. Soc. 354 (1999)1155 Metabolic integration of a neurovascular unit
Nature Neurosci. 6 (2003) 43
Astrocytes are glutamate responsive and mediate arteriolar smooth muscle control via COX products Intracellular Ca release with mglur stimulation (t-acpd)
Direct electrical stimulation of astrocyte relaxes arteriolar smooth muscle Lucifer yellow injected astrocyte Local smooth muscle relaxation
Modulation of BOLD response from direct cortical stimulation by selective astrocyte metabotropic GluR5 inhibition Saline mglur5 anatogonist [2-methyl-6-(phenylethynal)-pyridine (MPEP)] Sloan et al. Neuroimage, epub
Pharmacological modulation of neurovascular coupling ~45% decrease in BOLD response Bruhn et al. J Magn Reson Imaging 13(2001)325-334
What is the lowest level for control of local blood flow in the brain? Functional activation of optical dominance columns in the human visual cortex Courtesy of Prof. R. Menon, Univ. West Ontario, Canada
Neurovascular control of capillary flow? A focus on the pericyte Capillary endothelium Capillary lumen Basement membrane Pericyte S. Nag Meth.Molec.Med. 89, 3
Pericytes are found along capillaries and at junctions
Propagation of contractile waves between pericytes along a capillary Note time delay between stimulated and downstream pericyte
BOLD signal correlates with local field potential (LFP)- reflecting presynaptic changes- not postsynaptic multiple unit spiking activity (MUA) Logothetis et al. Nature 412:150
Formal demonstration that BOLD responses are related to event related electrophysiological dynamics EEG-correlated fmri response Data on file, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare.
Standard and EEG-correlated BOLD responses identify identical patterns of brain activation Response activation with nicotine challenge EEG-correlated BOLD response Standard taskcorrelated BOLD response Data on file, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare.
Summary Sherrington introduced the concept of cerebral local blood flow control related to neuronal activity that underlies most functional brain imaging The Sherringtonian mechanism has been modified since to account for apparent lack of a demand -lead Control appears to be mediated by local neurotransmitter release, interaction with astrocytes (arteriolar) and pericytes (capillaries) and propagation of depolarisations along glial and pericyte networks Glutamate release acting at metabotropic receptors plays a central role Activation changes correlate well with both near- and far-field potentials